The Too-Brief Chronicle of Judah Lowe
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The Too-Brief Chronicle of Judah Lowe
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780986144547 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Sagging Meniscus Press |
| Publication date: | 12/15/2015 |
| Pages: | 214 |
| Sales rank: | 329,982 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
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Read an Excerpt
The Too-Brief Chronicle of Judah Lowe
By Christopher Carter Sanderson
Sagging Meniscus Press
Copyright © 2015 Christopher Carter SandersonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9861445-4-7
CHAPTER 1
79/79/'79
1. The Brothers Tazwell
Young Tazwell tossed the anchor from their family's small boat up over the fake-gothic crenellations of the High School theatre building, its nylon line un-spooling at his feet. Moe frowned as he grabbed a hearty twist of the line and smiled. Hand over hand, he ascended. Taz imitated his brother's walk up the wall. Next morning, Principal Jameson opened his office door and hundreds of white mice scampered out beneath his coffee cup and into the brightening hallways.
2. The Anatomy of Courage
He walked to the center of the lawn, having marched right out of the tenth-grade History class he was teaching. Mr. Locker was thinking of his bowels, his ass from the inside, and all of the fluids in his body in a way that would have been embarrassing if he wasn't so terrified. And the box would be found by the State Bomb Squad to have contained: a bundle of road flares, some old phone wires and a clock.
3. Alice, Exposed
Alice was talking, there on the only benches in that vast yard in front of school. A field-hockey player, all strong thighs and skirt. You'd think she was talking to herself. Moe lay, hidden by the bulk of his bench, the folds of his oversize black coat, and his round, blue sunglasses, listening to his hangover, only vaguely registering her plaintive, round face. It was talked about with giggles for days; she remembered it with anger for years.
4. Dodecahedron
I would decide you had gotten under the suspended sculpture that Jason left in his garage to see it centered on its face instead of the vortex. I'd ask you on Facebook. You'd never get back to me. You were probably building robots again. That day, in that garage, it was we who felt controlled from the inexorable outside. The wreck that was left of Jason and his car had no such symmetry. Then, we went to the movies.
5. Cri de Coeur
Reuben, rail thin 6'5" in a deerstalker hat, wandered into the meeting of the Alternative Literary Magazine, scrawled on the blackboard in Ancient Greek, next discussing writers we'd never heard of. In orchestra class he flawlessly executed a piano sonata. The night of the State Orchestra Final, we pulled him away from feverishly practicing on the edge of his hotel bed, reeking of vodka. We thought he was asleep in his underwear, when he cried out, "Liszt! Liszt! REALITY!"
6. Chess
Oh, a poem and a drawing of chessmen tumbling from the page, changing shape, flying away. Her bright eyes, smile, childish voice, all on the cusp. Her black hair and pale skin. As if summoned by his hopes, she walked up. The Rapidograph pen was so perfect, the lines so fine, a professional magic wand from the temple in New York City ... Pearl Paint. "I always say, those Tazwell brothers sure can draw." And then ... she just ... walked away.
7. The Socratic Method
It left the indelible image of Socrates as an aging, German-looking High School teacher in an improbable black toupée. The rules were: you read the one-page purple mimeograph, and then spent the rest of the class questioning Mr. Davits as if he were Socrates. The questions got unexpectedly racy right through wine, sex and the Symposium. And then, Socrates' question for us: if we were drinking Christ's blood and eating his body every Sunday, didn't that make us cannibals?
8. Rather the Bass in Hell ...
His mother played the record of each instrument, solo, over and over. Moe said, "I'd like to play the bass." She took up the needle and said, "you're seven, too short for the bass. How about the cello? My favorite!" Junior year, the competition landed him at second deck in the cello section of the orchestra. Looking down at the end-pin he'd had lengthened twice now, he walked out during the Telemann. His first bass lesson was that afternoon.
9. Suicide
No, it was not a good idea. They kissed, seriously. No, it was not a good idea. They were sitting in the window alcove known as "Moe's office" at school in broad daylight. No, it was not a good idea. His girlfriend would not understand. No, it was not a good idea. She had decided to commit suicide. Yes, it was a great idea. He said, "I just think you should use a slower method, like champagne. Or cigarettes."
10. Away
No way. The Keither was not going to steal the school flag. Not going to happen. That was OK. The Keither could still hang around. No big deal. McTierney High School awaited the next plot. For one thing, nobody had packed a car full and run in to Greenwich Village in way too long. Just as they pulled out, The Keither dove in across the back-seat laps. And all the way there, the school flag streamed out the window.
11. That Day
They moved into their new house, in this new town. It wouldn't last; they'd be in a cheaper one by the time school was out. The movers rushed. They gave her five bucks to help with small things and direct traffic. Voyager 11 sent pictures of Jupiter's rings. She assembled her new chair. Spacelab began to fall to earth. She had a fever of 103 when they lifted her into bed. That day, Jen turned 13: March 4, 1979.
12. A Melancholy Age
The loved youngest boy of a family of boys, it was Junior Year and he had everything: that bright red chariot of his childhood desires – his eldest brother's car – and the beta tapes of Hornblower, favorite of all the boys, lawn darts and a huge lawn, a pool, the aging, happy family dog: everything. There was everything five boys could want, except four of the boys. The youngest of his older brothers would graduate college this year.
13. Chick 'n Bones
Jess could make surplus Army pants look really, really ... that. Joyous, free, essential on the field hockey team, dancing in the middle of every party like the nymph spirit of cool. She was staring dreamily into space. Turning the corner, Moe saw the large pile of bones on the curb. His eyebrows made a question mark and Jess just sighed, smiled and said, "he's such an animal." Years later, he'd find out Jess had become a US Forest Ranger.
14. An Angel Popped Up
After guns, the pale kid would talk about playing the harmonica. Rumors went around. He was abused; the empty Jack Daniels bottles stacked in the drainage grate were his, and so on. Sad, so full with something he wasn't telling. Moe brought out a tall bass from the orchestra room to the smoking wall. Once through a 12-bar, twice. Then, the kid looked distant, pulled out that harmonica and played. Better than the radio, better than anything mortal.
15. Decontextual Fries
Like a nightmare sloppy zombie Big Mac imitation, nobody ever finished a Big Duke. They filled the cafeteria garbage cans with oozing sludge. On a bad day the french-fries were all that was edible. Even so, your fingers would stink of cooking oil, no matter how you scrubbed them in the Boy's Room. A murmur started up, then laughter. Taz had a pair of chopsticks from the local takeout and was calmly eating fries. They never touched his fingers.
16. The New World
One day, she woke up and walked into town. Light streamed up from the fresh snow on the ground. She had never worn this coat in Atlanta. She walked onto the college campus, a phony Disney version of Oxford or Cambridge built in the '30's, and it captivated her. She wandered inside and moved down the hall. Nobody stopped her. Some of them looked younger than she. Jen sat through a whole lecture: The Discovery of the New World.
17. A Liszt of Friends
Hung over and mortified behind the grim peak of his nose, Reuben strode onstage to polite applause from the judges. The deep breath he took seemed to focus his intensity on the piano. In fact, he couldn't remember even the first note. He looked up, and saw that the bass players had put their hats on top of their basses. Among them, Reuben's deerstalker flew like a tweed flag. Reuben exhaled, and his long hands went to their place.
18. Protest Poems
Animal Farm, then on to 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange, and Lord of the Flies. A mirthless march lead by teachers unaware of the parallels to what was between their classroom walls. Words, words, words. And then they were weapons. Anonymous poems appeared, Xeroxed from handwritten originals and taped to the walls. What was incredible was that they were talked about by the busy hordes rushing by to class; and that they weren't taken down.
19. Flight
Jon-O and Mike were going to be fighter pilots, I tell you. They read about flying, talked about flying, and they calculated and performed precision maneuvers with their ten-speeds. The front wheel of Tim's bike would glide by the rear wheel of Jon-O's with millimeters to spare. Then they would wheel around for the opposite. They conducted pre- and post-flight briefings. I think Jon-O's garage really looked like an aircraft carrier briefing room. Tim's mom could never, ever know.
20. Moe's Message
Never, ever forget that this was hard. Never look back on this with nostalgia; this is not sweet nonsense. This is a message to my future self. Remember: I'm wearing a yellow button-down shirt, sitting in the empty theater. Like performing dogs acting out their master's delusions, the Drama Club has performed a High School musical. Evil. Wrong. Future self, I put this message in your memory from who you were now: Never, ever forget this was hard.
21. King Tut
Alex got into the city every weekend that April. His sense of expectation was always as starched as his chinos. The weekend train, so empty. The tomb's contents, he listed them quietly to himself. The names of the goddesses in their skin-tight dresses, still so chic after 3,000 years. Look, he thought, maybe it was OK to have big lips, narrow eyes and skin that was, if you looked at it just right reflected in that train window, gold.
22. Tazwell Bros., Inc.
McCoy loves you long enough to find out what's hip, then he buys it and drops you. Sometimes, he lucks into it. The Village is cool? His mom writes for the Voice. Driving in? His BMW is already there. Clothes? You shop cheap in the East Village, he snaps it up next day. Score a sack of hemp from your hillbilly uncle? McCoy steals it from the party. His BMW never recovered from that potato up its tailpipe, though.
23. Division
Four of them came to school ready to head out on Friday: black suits, white shirts, thin ties, and sharp shoes. Nobody razzed McCoy for dressing up too. They were just looking forward to a party. They weren't late for math class, they were early. They chatted up friends, and had forgotten the fun of all the mod gear. The math teacher handed out the mimeographed test, and instead of explaining, blurted out, "so, what are you guys? Undertakers?"
24. What's On Display
At this point, the Museum of Natural History on the college campus is a display of outdated ideas, not scientific facts. An ugly mural is valued because of its age and not because of any fidelity to the Age of the Dinosaurs. It shows big Godzillas running around instead of Tyrannosaurus Rexes. Nobody cares. The Polar Bear unmarked is therefore not a victim of error. Crummy stuffed Eskimos peer at Moe and smirk at the inappropriateness of their display.
25. March 28, 1979
Peach Bottom, Browns Ferry, Millstone, Crystal River, Vermont Yankee ... summer camps, places your kindly great aunt might live, or friendly train lines? "Vermont Yankee now boarding for fly-fishing spots," perhaps. You might like a few days at "Millstone" B&B or a dip in "Crystal River." Sounding more like a preppy vacation enclave, Three Mile Island was a nuclear reactor, the first on this list to break. Jen felt guilty – glad of the cover – slipping into her new school.
26. Alien Logic
Aliens from outer space would think that nuclear reactors this crude should be kept three miles underground. Nobody should have to die to get inside them if they break. Two-lane roads were insane to the aliens, with inches between cars speeding at each other. Jason would have found the essay funny; as it was Moe didn't get into Honors English with it and was often asked why. He told the curious to ask Mrs. Keny about her alien logic.
27. The Pangloss Papers
The beef between the school's literary magazine and its "alternative literary magazine" was not so much a true rivalry as a sequestration. It kept the quiet, approved, achieving kids – the kids who wanted to please – away from the outright intellectual and creative brawl that was considered "alternative." There had been ACLU lawsuits. Each year brought Principal Jameson's personal attention to issues of its content. Thirty years later, every kid in it was a published, employed writer or artist.
28. The Optimist
Charlie, a gangly, straw-haired freshman who sang the blues with a big heart, could play his own cool songs too. Starting with the cafe under the college's religion building, everyone asked him back once they'd heard him. Moe called Charlie "my once-a-month friend" because every month, they'd pick him up and he'd sing sweet, play the guitar and be free for one night. Then they'd drop Charlie off and he'd be screamed at and grounded again for another month.
29. And where there is despair, may we bring hope ...
Later, the election-winning idea of replacing the school cafeteria with a MacDonald's would happen, if not at McTierney. A last-minute notion, as indeed Moe's nomination to the ballot for Student Representative to the School Board had been, it was just sheer luck to be the last thing said by the last person to speak. Other candidates had better notes, better ideas, better speeches. But, the bored, annoyed students erupted at the idea that lunch could actually be worth eating.
30. In Mind of Etan Patz
That little boy was still missing in the city. Tim hoped he'd be OK as he walked through the rain to the bus stop. Two towns over, a walk across the parking lot – empty now, it would be packed with Cameros. The boss insisted he be early. Would the cool kids at the roller-disco ever suspect that it was him, a skinny 14-year-old, behind the smoked glass of that DJ booth? Lucky his voice had changed last year.
31. Burning Basses
Like a patrol of young WW1 soldiers somehow, with tweed caps instead of Pickelhauben, in long black coats and formal shoes, the entire bass section of the school orchestra marched across the virgin snow – or like a strange murder of crows or the large black tone-clusters on a white page of modern music. The rest of the instruments had fit into cars for the ride across the field to the Middle School. But passion was a warm fuel.
32. "I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity"
"The cat's out of the bag" means you've already been found guilty and the cat-o-nine-tails is out of its leather bag to give you your lashes. The author of the Protest Poems had so far remained anonymous. Their latest hit was a flight of metaphor only clear in that it was about the Vice Principal. So it wasn't to the principal's office that Moe was sent after sitting down in gym class to pen a poem against compulsory fun.
33. The Scarlet Letters
The answer was "no" and should have stayed that way. In a moment of weakness, assailed on two sides by attractive, earnest representatives of the literary magazine and yearbook for quotes, Moe broke down. It was the last possible moment. If you read the capitalized first letters of the hasty poem for the magazine, they spelled EAT SHIT. The yearbook's ... even worse. He circled them in red ink at the end of year for anyone who wanted a signature.
34. In Medias Res
The kid flew around the track, pacing the blond twins in their matching track uniforms. They were here from Germany, the stars of every meet. Gym class was a mere rehearsal of their glory. This kid, in faded jeans with a peacock feather flying behind his ear was not slowing down. He was barefoot. In the last twenty yards, he sprinted away, yards ahead of them and kept going, toward the open road. Why wasn't he on the team?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Too-Brief Chronicle of Judah Lowe by Christopher Carter Sanderson. Copyright © 2015 Christopher Carter Sanderson. Excerpted by permission of Sagging Meniscus Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
TItle Page,Dedication,
Foreword,
79/79/'79,
1. The Brothers Tazwell,
2. The Anatomy of Courage,
3. Alice, Exposed,
4. Dodecahedron,
5. Cri de Coeur,
6. Chess,
7. The Socratic Method,
8. Rather the Bass in Hell ...,
9. Suicide,
10. Away,
11. That Day,
12. A Melancholy Age,
13. Chick 'n Bones,
14. An Angel Popped Up,
15. Decontextual Fries,
16. The New World,
17. A Liszt of Friends,
18. Protest Poems,
19. Flight,
20. Moe's Message,
21. King Tut,
22. Tazwell Bros., Inc.,
23. Division,
24. What's On Display,
25. March 28, 1979,
26. Alien Logic,
27. The Pangloss Papers,
28. The Optimist,
29. And where there is despair, may we bring hope ...,
30. In Mind of Etan Patz,
31. Burning Basses,
32. "I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity",
33. The Scarlet Letters,
34. In Medias Res,
35. "We cannot ... substitute myths for common sense",
36. The Temple,
37. The Story of Drake and the Motorcycle,
38. Both,
39. Brooklyn Brobdingnagian,
40. Quite Early One Morning,
41. Now and Then,
42. Turnabout is Airplay,
43. A Taste of Heaven,
44. Nothing Down,
45. Touch Sensitive,
46. Meliores te sumus,
47. Cadenza,
48. Francis of Assisi,
49. Skin,
50. Stop and Start,
51. The Valkyrie,
52. Navil,
53. Law French,
54. The Scoop,
55. Night Train,
56. The Heat,
57. Blockheads,
58. No Exit,
59. Bellerophon,
60. Magister Musicae,
61. Far Away,
62. Change,
63. Tragedy,
64. The Lost Weekend,
65. Echo and Narcissus,
66. Eat Me,
67. American Revolution,
68. Pax Romana,
69. Poem Number Sixty-Nine,
70. Wasting Lives,
71. Late Nights,
72. Geometry of Circles,
73. Ellipsis,
74. Solo,
75. Language and Responsibility,
76. Christmas Cheer,
77. Requiem,
78. ¿Por qué todas las cosas buenas terminan?,
79. Dead Fish and Jazz,
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